Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve is finally upon us with preparations running smoothly. Nothing to worry about, the caterer has everything under control. I'm so happy I don't have to do a thing but show up dressed and ready to Eat, Drink and be Merry!
Bonnie and I head to town to pick up his special Christmas gifts I ordered and had custom made. We have a nice lunch at the bistro across the street from the lingerie shop. "Bon, I need to go over to pick up some holiday stockings to match my dress. I thought I had a pair tucked away but they are nowhere to be found. Maybe you can pick up a little number to surprise Steve with?" I tease her.
She turns beet red but laughing, "G, he will probably laugh himself silly instead of turning him on as it should. I don't look as good as you do in those sexy kinds of things."
"Aw, Girl, come on. Don't put yourself down like that, you are fit and trim. They have all sorts of pretty nighties over there to make any girl look special. At least take a look around, you might find something." She agrees to browse the store. Believe it or not, she did find a pretty set to wear for him tonight.
It's the countdown to the party. Nanny insisted on dressing the twins so I am able to get a nap in before I have to get up and ready. He took a nap with me and let me sleep for a change. We manage to get dressed for the party on time with time to spare. It took some talking but I convinced Nanny to join us for dinner. She wanted to stay in the nursery and wait for the twins to return. She is so stubborn sometimes wanting to stay in the shadows unnoticed. Dagummit, she's a part of this family too.
We take the twins down to wait for the guests to arrive. They look so cute with their Christmas outfits on. We have a bassinet set up in the living room, adjacent to the dining room to put them in while we eat dinner. I hope they sleep because it will be a big evening for them.
All the guest arrive cheerfully and full of the holiday spirit. Of course, most of them are wanting to meet Ethan and Violet. Thankfully, the twins passed out right before dinner is served. I was glad they took a break and gave us one too. My darling husband wanted to hold Ms.Violet while she slept in his arms at the dinner table. "Sweetie, please put her down to nap. She needs all the rest this evening she can get. I don't want her to get out of sorts."
Lyron and Shonna brought Zander with them. He looks so much better and is thriving, he's fast asleep in his portable car seat carrier. After pleading with him, he finally puts Violet down with her brother in the bassinet and the babies all take a nap while we enjoy our special Christmas Eve dinner. We had my traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner of lasagna (vegetarian for him), cucumbers in sour cream with a side of fresh fruit and Tiramisu for dessert.
Nanny is fussing over all of the babies. It's hard to get her to settle down and enjoy dinner with us. She keeps getting up to check on them. She never turns her watchful eye from them.
We had just finished dinner and was preparing to have coffee and dessert when all the babies woke up, singing their song to be fed. All the ladies wanted to follow us up to see the nursery so we took everyone up with us to feed them. The guys stayed behind to have dessert in the living room. Pretty soon, I heard my husband warm up the piano keys while we are upstairs. Nanny insisted on staying in the nursery with the babies, Zander too.
My husband played and sang a slew of Christmas songs for us. Of course, the musicians we invited to the party had to play too. We enjoyed our dessert with coffee while being serenaded. The caters did a fantastic job with the food, I am pleased. The final song, 'All I Want For Christmas Is You', I agreed to sing. After I sang it to him, that concluded the party. Whispering in my ear, "Babe, I can hardly wait till we go upstairs to give you a special present." I give him my side eye. "That'll have to wait till much later." I know what he's angling for.
I have a very special Christmas Eve present for him too. We see our guests out, I give them each a box of the Christmas cookies I ordered from the bakery. Lyron and Shonna are the last to leave after they retrieve Zander from the nursery. I give them some cookies and a couple of bags of gifts from us. They are very surprised and thanked us profusely. That is probably the only Christmas gifts they will receive this year and we wanted it to be special for them and Zander.
After everyone departed, we joined Bonnie and Steve in the living room with just the Christmas lights and tree lights on. The atmosphere is peaceful and so relaxing. All the gifts have been wrapped and placed under the tree. It's almost time to feed the twins. "Baby, after we feed the twins, can we open our presents? After all, it will be after midnight...Christmas Day?"
"Sure Sweetheart. It was always a tradition in my family. Is everyone good with that?" Bonnie and Steve nod as we head up to feed the twins. Nanny is standing guard. "Ma'am and Sir, their bottles are in the warmer and ready for them. Would you like for me to take over the 4:00 am feeding for you? I'd love to give that time to both of you as my special Christmas present."
He looks at me nodding with approval and a devilish smile on his face. I know what he wants to do all night. I accept, "Aw Nanny. Thank you. We love it if you would do that for us. But you have to come back downstairs with us after we feed the twins. We are going to see what Santa left us under the tree. Please join us."
She looks a little hesitant, "Yes Ma'am. As you wish." We feed the twins, change them out of their Christmas clothes and put them in their sleepers. Quickly they go back to sleep. My husband takes a couple of pictures of them sleeping before we head downstairs. "Babe, I had to document their first Christmas Eve. Look at them smiling with sugarplums dancing in their heads." "Ah, Sweetheart. That's cute but it's probably gas."
All of us giggling trying to not wake them up, we head down to have our adult Christmas. I guess we are setting a tradition in our new family. We'll have Christmas with the twins tomorrow. Those two will be showered with all kinds of gifts tomorrow, getting more than all of us put together, I'm sure. I can hardly wait for the fun with them.
When we arrive in the living room, Steve has his Santa hat on and bellows. "Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas one and all. Nanny, I see you still have your Santa hat on, will you help me like Santa's helper and distribute the gifts from under the tree?" She nods as she walks over to the tree. Steve picks up the gifts one by one reading the tag to the recipient before handing it to Nanny. We are all sitting with great anticipation. As the gifts get handed out, we each have a stack of gifts in front of us. Nanny sat her gifts aside on the piano bench. When Steve finished, he took his seat next to Bonnie, Nanny moved over to be with us. "Ok, everyone. The way this goes, you read who the gift is from and open it. This will go around until all the gifts are open." Steve clears his throat, "Before we begin, allow me to say a prayer of thanks."
Lord Jesus, Wise men traveled for miles to bring you the first Christmas presents. So may we, too, remember with thankful hearts the love that comes with each present we open. We also thank you for the amazing love you have for each of us, and we thank you for the many gifts that you give us. Amen
"Sweetheart, since you wanted to do this now, how about you start the gift opening?" He picks up the box on top, reads it is from Steve and opens it up. He laughs and shows us a pair of socks with toes in them. "Thanks, Steve!"
"Buddy that way you can wear them easier with those high heel flip flops and not stretch out your tube socks." We all had a round of laughter.
Next up is me. I read it is from Bonnie. I open it up and crack up laughing. It's a cute sleep shirt that says, Naughty...Nice...I Tired with the 'I Tired' box checked. He whispers in my ear, "Umm, are you going to model it for me tonight?" I shoot him my side eye. We all get a round of gag gifts but very thoughtful and usable.
Round two, he opens a gift from me. It's a set of silk PJ's with a matching robe in purple paisley I had Cathy make for him to match a nightgown and robe for me. These match we can take to the hospital when the twins are born. My gift from him is a pair of socks that say on the bottom, "I'm going to be a Mommy Today" with a pretty paisley pink button up nightgown and robe for me to take to the hospital. Yep, Cathy was busy making night clothes. We had her make some for Steve and Bonnie too. What's Christmas without getting some nice sleepwear.
Bonnie gets Steve a new Rolex wristwatch and he gets her a diamond tennis bracelet. Wow, that's better than the new computer she got last year. She found it at the jewelry store in town and had to get it for him. It is really a nice watch, looks much better than the old Longines he has worn for years.
We bought Nanny a Kindle Fire tablet for her to read her books on. She is old school and has bags of books everywhere. She also got gift cards to Amazon, and a prime membership to buy whatever books she wants to read. She has a laptop computer but we thought she might enjoy having the tablet so she could use it to play games on it too and it's more portable. Nanny knits and made us all beautiful scarfs of special yarn that match our winter coats. She also made us all some of her special Christmas candy, English Toffee.
The only thing left is my husband and I have one gift from each other to open. He goes first, it's my special gift to him I had custom made. When he opens it, his face said 1000 words. It's a purple crystal piano music box. He opens it up with a custom computer chip with my voice singing to him, playing piano, "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"
The first time ever I saw your face
I thought the sun rose in your eyes
And the moon and stars were the gifts you gave
To the dark and the empty skies my love
To the dark and the empty skiesThe first time ever I kissed your mouth
I felt the earth move in my hand
Like the trembling heart of a captive bird
That was there at my command my love
That was there at my command
The first time ever I laid with you
And felt your heartbeat close to mine
I thought our joy would fill the world
And would last till the end of time my love
And will last till the end of our time
After it plays, his eyes are all welled up in tears like the first time I sang this song for him. "Baby, that's beautiful and I love you." For some reason, he seems a little shaken. My man usually never gets like that over a song. He picks up the box still unwrapped and hands it to me to open from him. I open it up and it's an exact replica of the music box I gave him. Whoa, I start to cry because we connected and got each other the same gift for Christmas. "Babe, open the top to play the music." It's him singing this song.
You're my love
You wanna know if I care for you
You ought to know by now
How can you stand there just pretending
And you know how I feel.
'Cause baby, you're my love
And I love everything you do to me
You're my love
And I love when you're around
You're my love
And I've never let you down.
You wanna know what I see you
I can really say it for sure
All I know is I need you
More than I've ever needed
Anyone else before.
'Cause baby, you're my love
And I love everything you do to me
You're my love
And I love when you're around
You're my love
And I've never let you down.
Seasons changing faster than they do
And we'll be gone
It's funny but we didn't seem to care
The only thing we cared about
Was keeping you out, our strong
As long as you're there
I'll always care...
I totally lose it, crying so uncontrollably because this song is so emotional and beautiful. Also, it is how he communicates best to me. He takes the music box from my hands, places it on the coffee table carefully then hugs me in a tight embrace. Trying to soothe me by caressing my back with his hands up and down motion.
"Babe, I love you more than anything in this world." With my head buried into his neck, I softly kiss his sweet spot just below the earlobe. "I know you do if I don't know anything else." My sobbing subsides, his eyes are flooded with tears too.
Bonnie knows there is one more gift for me to give him in private. Really there is 2 but she only knows of one. She softly says, "Oh my! That was a beautiful Christmas gift you gave to each other. I think it's about time to call it a night."
My darling husband shakes his head. "One more." He retrieves envelopes from the drawer of the coffee table, hands each of us one before he sits down...
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